I do hope you enjoyed "The Truman Show" movie we watched this afternoon. As I mentioned in class, I thought everyone may want to consider the following things.
- Remember that you need to bring a draft of your first essay to class on Tuesday. We'll spend most of the class working together on peer reviews. The first paper must be written using one of the two following critical approaches -- either Biographical/Historical or New Criticism.
- You may use any of the twenty stories from our anthology of short stories, but only stories from this anthology.
- Begin to consider which perspective you might consider for the movie we watched.
- There are many things to consider: a) The movie represents an extreme form of reality television. The movie was made in 1998 when reality television was spreading rapidly and changing the way people watched television (or what they expected to watch). b) From the very first scene in the movie, it appears that Truman works toward the ending scene when he leaves his artificial world. That could be interpreted using a New Criticism approach. c) On the other hand, the ending for Truman constitutes his fleeing his controlled world and escaping into the unknown. We know that his love interest is seen going down the stairs while he goes up a different set of stairs, but do they ever meet? We are left without a conclusive ending. Hmmm...lots to consider.
- Remember that you will need to do a fair amount of biographical and/or historical research in order to write a biographical/historical essay.
- You will likely not need to do research for New Criticism, as it focuses on the text.
- Your short story essay needs to be 3-5 pages long, but that does not include either the outline or the Works Cited page (those are in addition).
- I think it would be a very helpful idea if classmates shared the following thoughts:
- Which perspective are you writing from (biographical/historical or New Criticism)?
- Which short story have you chosen to match with the perspective you have chosen?
- Why did you pick that particular story?
- Remember that the blog is meant to be a helpful tool for you and your classmates.
- Good luck, and I'll see you on Tuesday.
Brian Yablon
"Riding the Doghouse" will be the short story that I will write on the New Criticism perspective. With this being my first attempt on writing on a perspective I felt this story had elements that were very obvious to depict. In addition to that I enjoyed the story.
ReplyDelete"Wake" is the short story that I chose. I will also write on the New Criticism perspective. The story was interesting with the author constantly describing a cold storm with rain, snow, and ice.
ReplyDeleteI chose "Pa's Darling" and I am writing on the biographical perspective. I was a little fimiliar with Louis Auchincloss(the author)biography and when I read the story, I found it very similar to his life.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading several of the short stories and having a better understanding of the New Criticism perspective it has opened my eyes to really looking at the text. Looking for the complexities, ambiguities, ironies, and tensions and see how the story is unified by those elements. I must admit at first I was a bit overwhelmed with doing this assignment but after really taking a look at the story I began to enjoy finding those elements. I am pretty sure my next story that I will write on is "Toga Party" on the Readers Response perspective.
ReplyDeleteI was also having difficulty since this was my first time using the New Criticism perspective but I also am understanding it more and more. I myself am going through the stories and finding those elements.
ReplyDeleteThe story that I chose to write about was Toga Party because of the impact it had on me after I read it. I found myself thinking about the story for quite a few days after I read it, I had a great deal of sympathy for the main characters and I certainly wouldn’t want to have the culmination of my life to be so empty. The textual theory that I chose to examine this text with was New Criticism as there were many contrasting elements throughout the piece, but the central theme of wanting to take control over their lives brought everything together and New Criticism is the theory that enables this to happen.
ReplyDeleteFor my first essay I chose biographical -historical criticism. I had to do a lot of research about the author. At the beginning, collecting information was not easy but it got to the point that I was really enjoying it and realized that I have too much information on author's life and it was an interesting challenge to relate his life to the story. I think for my second essay I will do "Riding the Doghouse" .
ReplyDeleteSo far we have done two essays and we are almost done with the movie review (due this Saturday 5/30). From the three perspectives we have written, I have found the New Criticism the easiest. I would not contribute that 100% to what our professor said that it is the most widely used by our teachers. I just found that the searching for opposites, ironies, and similarities facilitated finding more things to say easier. The readers response is a broader subject and it is harder to narrow in your response. You can go anywhere with it.
ReplyDeleteHello everyone,
ReplyDeleteReader Response seems to be an easier theory than the others. I really enjoyed the class exercise we did when we read the words to a song three times. First listening, then selecting two lines, then one word. Finally adding the music and seeing how it changed the meaning. I am really trying to learn how to best apply "New Criticism" which I used for my first essay. I am trying to apply this theory to the Truman Show. Is anyone else?
Harold Brand
For my first essay, I choose Balto and used New Criticism theory. The Story was pretty good and easy to read, I wish I could say the same thing about the theory though. I do not know how I ended up choosing a theory that I was not so sure about
ReplyDeleteAfter watching 2 of the 3 movies, I have decided to write my movie essay on Run Lola Run. I am thinking of using Deconstruction Theory just because this movie had different obstacles that ended up with three different endings.
ReplyDeleteI had a hard time using new criticism for my first essay, i felt i did not quite understand it. I applied the deconstruction criticism to my movie essay for "Run Lola Run" and felt that I understood that more.
ReplyDeleteI have also chosen to use the psychological and feminist theories for my second and third essays.
ReplyDeleteI chose "Riding the Doghouse" for my third essay and I also chose to use the psychological criticisim for my movie essays "Truman Show" using Psychological criticisim.
ReplyDelete